The Love Substitutes
Live in Leuven 17/02/07

THE REVIEW

It's a fairly simple matter to sell out a place that's twice the size of a living room; if you consider the logistical fact that the Love Substitutes average less than 10 concerts a year (even fewer), you understand why 60/70 people filled this tiny live music venue.
The place is called Molens Van Orshoven, an old brewery in the industrial area of Leuven (where Stella Artois used to be produced), comprising a theater, an exhibition hall, and, inevitably, a pub.

A little after 10 PM, here come the Love Substitutes: Craig Ward appears a bit tipsy, with an unkempt beard and a gray-light blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves; Rudi Trouvé, with a sinister grin on his face, dressed in black from head to toe, is - despite his unsettling appearance - in great spirits; Mauro Pawlowski, an improbable Flemish dandy, in dark jacket and trousers, and for nearly the entire concert with his gaze lost somewhere; finally, Bert Lenaerts on bass, seems to be the only sane one in this gathering of madmen.

The star of the evening will be Craig Ward; his guitar playing - simple and essential - is enriched by delay, loops, hints of melody, heavily accented riffs by the big muff. In contrast, Trouvé - between dialogues with Ward's guitar - tortures his instrument for most of the time: frenetic strumming, offbeats, dissonances, at one point "playing" the guitar with a toy trumpet, doing everything possible to make more noise. Providing the rhythmic background, along with the aforementioned Lenaerts, is Pawlowski, busy swinging rhythm on the drums (sometimes randomly, losing his sticks several times). It's hard to talk about "songs" or pigeonhole the Love Substitutes into a particular style: here are simply musicians who have decided to give their (crazy) creativity free rein.

The concert ends with Craig Ward delivering the final blow to the snare drum (already thoroughly battered during the evening) and Pawlowski deciding to bid farewell to the audience by putting said snare on his head. Craig attempts to start one last improvisation - yet another of the evening - keeping time on what's left of the drum set, but there's nothing to be done; the others have already left the stage to chat and start dismantling the equipment. Everyone is laughing, it was a great evening, they had fun, and so did we.